As we head into even colder, darker months, it becomes harder than usual to motivate ourselves to get out and exercise, but there are some tips I swear by to make winter training that little bit easier to try.
Wake up at the same time every day
This will give you less sleep inertia (stress), improve alertness, reduce caffeine dependence, brighten your mood and improve your immune system function
Get outdoors at least twice a day (whatever the weather)
Getting outdoors for a dose of Vitamin D, fresh air and to ensure you hit your recommended step count every day. When we are more house-bound in winter months, our general activity levels drop, so you will need to plan ahead for this and schedule those outing into your diary!
Create a schedule for your workouts – and stick to it!
Make sure your expectations are realistic, but you should aim for 30-60mins per day. Mix this up with high-intensity workouts and more steady state runs, walks or cycles for variety and adherence. Try some of these free home workouts if you can’t get to the gym.
Get the right kit
Whether it’s home gym or studio equipment, or simply cold weather layers, the right running shoes or a turbo frame for indoor cycling, plan ahead. On cold, dark mornings, you need everything to work in your favour, so if you can’t find your running gloves, that 10km run may never happen.
Try cold showers
Gear yourself up for a bit of cold exposure by having a cold shower. Even just a few minutes at the end of your regular warm shower will help you adapt and build resilience. And it’s proven to be great for mental health too, reducing cortisol and releasing endorphins.
And there’s one other piece of advice that I think is a game-changer and that is to play the long game. Phrases like ’summer bodies are made in winter’ are true, but only go half way to promoting long-term exercise adherence.
The best way to motivate yourself to exercise during winter months is to have those positive habits ingrained already. So that changes in weather and light don’t de-rail you completely, they just add another dimension to your training programme. If you’ve been chipping away all year, you will have begun to build a high level of resilience already which in simplicity eaters means you’ll have greater tolerance of perceived hardship.
Some recent headlines have only served to further support the ignorant view that exercise is a punishment for indulgence. The sooner we can get this out of our psyche and rid ourselves of the belief that there is a transactional relationship between exercise and food, the sooner we’ll start to appreciate the far wider reaching benefits of physical movement and allow it to become an intrinsically motivated habit. And in basic terms, that means you’ll stick with it, you’ll enjoy the process and you’ll see the positive physical and mental results far sooner and for far longer!
I’m thrilled to be writing a monthly column for @dailystruggleuk and each month, I’ll be sharing some of the strategies that I use on a daily basis to train for general physical and mental preparedness. I do not believe that I am the most talented person out there, or even the strongest, fastest or fittest, but I do have an inner drive to be the best I can at whatever I do – and I never, ever give up.
Follow Vicki on Instagram @vickianstey and @barreworks
